I have been asked to do a project and the size wanted is enormous! 2200 x 2000 pixels. I know I can’t work on a smaller canvas and enlarge it that much or it will distort. And I am having great difficulty working on a small section at a time because I can’t see the overall picture and how it supposed to flow. I have a 15" monitor but I would need a wall to see all of this at the same time.
How do others handle this?? Any tips would be so greatfully appreciated!!
I have worked on an image as large as 3000 x 2500 pixels. I have a 19" monitor. I have two methods. First I do all of my modeling etc at a small canvas size then save the objects. Then I import them into the larger canvas. Then I simply zoom in and out as I am working on them. I use zoom modes of .25 .5 and .75 The second method is identical to the first but I will sometimes take advantage of the ALTERNATE DOCUMENT VIEW…it is activated by clicking on the two little trianges at the middle-top of your screen. You can then zoom in or out on one view while maintaining normal viewing size in the other view.
Adding to Mentat7’s technique:
After modeling all of your objects, place them on a small canvas size that is proportional to what you’ll ultimately work on. Place markers for each as you go. When they are all placed, clear the canvas and change the document size to your actual working size.
At this point, you’ll probably want to increase the marker radius in the Preferences palette. Go through the document and use every marker that you’d placed to re-draw the object. It will automatically be scaled to fit the larger canvas size, but without any of the nightmares of trying to position them on a large canvas. One click, and it’s in place!
For my own personal technique, I then usually zoom out so that a large part of the document is visible, and start doing general painting. As I start needing greater levels of detail, I then zoom in to actual size to focus on those areas. Since it’s just detail work at this point, it no longer usually matters that I can’t see the whole canvas.
Hope that helps!
I didnt know that was what the alternate view thing was…lol…thnx I learned somethign from this too… 
I just begin in the large size, and it doesn’t seem to slow my computer down unduly…The marker idea is probably more efficient though…
I like working in a large size from the outset, because I like painting my backgrounds, and I can get into more detail… 
Since holding down the spacebar enables scrolling to get to various parts of the image, monitor size shouldn’t be a problem…And you can Zoom out now and then to get an overview of how it’s going…
Also the more computer memory you have when working with large canvas sizes the better. Before I upgraded to 256 megs of memory from 128 megs of memory, I found working at sizes larger than 1024 x 768 would slow down ZBrush’s response time considerable. It’s a lot less so now that I upgraded. I still want to get to at least 512 megs eventually, however.
see the overall picture ?
change your screen Resolution
Well thanks everyone, that gives me some ideas to try anyhow. I have never done anything anywhere near this big so it will be a challenge for sure.
And EZ, I tried increasing my screen resolution as high as I could get it and I still can’t see the whole image, but it was a thought.
Thanks again.
